The Relationship Between Ignorance And Violence

Hate crime is a motivated violent act by a group or individual perpetrator towards a specific race, colour or religion (Collins, Pg 93,192). For many years, authority figures and the media have ignored hate crime offences towards individuals who identify under the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) umbrella. Up until the 20th century and prior to the 1964 Civil Rights Act, LGBTQ persons have been victimized in violent crimes based solely on gender identification and orientation. With a myriad of events, cases and unreported individual incidents the burden of proof towards hate crime on LQBTQ increased. The development of North American law towards LGBTQ citizens has improved throughout the last two decades. However, there

A 2005 study conducted by National Institute of Justice, found that the Federal Government and all but one state, Wyoming, have laws related to hate crimes. A consistent problem identified by this study is there in no consistency in defining what constitutes a hate crime. (Carrie F. Mulford, Ph.D., & Michael Shively, Ph.D., Hate Crime in America: The Debate Continues, 257, Nat’l Inst Just., (2007). “The Federal Bureau of Investigation defines hate crime—also called bias crime—as “a criminal offense committed against a person, property, or society that is motivated, in whole or in part, by the offender’s bias against a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, or ethnicity/national origin.” ld.

In this Gays and lesbians deserve equal protection against the hate crimes that happen in the world. Aren't we told as young children and also throughout life to treat others as we would want to be treated? So why are some decimated against based on sexual preference? The statistics show the percentages of the hate discrimination against the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual community. The violence that they are pitted against, due to people's discrimination against them, in life. And I will also mention the discrimination that the LGBT community goes through and what they miss out based on sexual preference.

3). These findings stated that 92 percent were offences that the police found to be motivated by hate, and eight percent of the offences fell into the specific categories in the criminal code (p. 4) This report showed that the top three categories for motivation for the hate crimes, in order, were: race/ethnicity, religion, and sexual orientation (p. 5). In terms of race, black individuals were the most common victims of hates crime (p. 14). The religion that faced the highest amount of hate crime against them was Judaism. Lastly, for sexual orientation the most common victims were 25 years of age and below and males. Along with these facts, this report also established that for race and religion the highest number of offenders were in the age category of “under 18”. The highest number of offenders for the sexual orientation category were from 45 to 54 years old (p. 13).

amount of the violence. My children at times were abused for defending me. I knew

Hate Crimes Prevention Act also provides authorities with a better picture of the prevalence of hate crimes by requiring local authorities to include hate crimes committed because of sexuality, gender, gender identity, and disability to the reports on local hate crimes that they send in to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Before the HCPA, hate crimes were already too prevalent in the United States, and the addition of these new classifications of hate crimes only added to the amount of hate crimes committed, giving the government and U.S. citizens a greater awareness of this problem. For example, of the 6,573 hate crimes committed in 2012, the top three motivations behind these acts were race (47.2 percent), religion (20.2 percent), and sexual orientation (19.7 percent) (“Hate Violence,”

The emergence of the hate crimes has reached the criminal justice system despite that it was somehow unknown to many in the past. Not many understood what is meant by hate crime but is rather becoming known with the understanding of the offenses related to hate crime becoming a standard issue among the citizens across the divide. Actually the criminal justice system has come up with clear definition of hate crime terming it as any kind of offense that is targeted to individual as brutality or prejudice against the person based on the race or ethnicity or religion, sexual orientation as well as gender identity of such a person (Freilich and Chermak, 2013). It is common to any individual or a group who has been targeted due to a holding a specific characteristic that is not present in a person or group

Hate crimes can be described as criminal activities that are perceived to be fueled by prejudice against and hostility towards the victim based on an individual characteristic. In most cases, hate crimes are motivated by gender, disability, sexual orientation, race, identity, and religion or faith. The increase in hate crimes in the recent past has not only made it a major issue that needs to be addressed in the modern society but has also attracted several legislative measures to deal with it. However, dealing with this major societal issue not only requires these legislative measures but also necessitate creative and critical thinking to enhance the effectiveness of initiatives taken to address it.

Based on the discussion from the Williams Institute, it is evident that there continues to be a prevalence of discrimination among groups that are not viewed as culturally acceptable in our county. In this article, it is reported that people are more likely to experience hate crimes based on their sexual orientations. For instance, 44% of people reported experience physical violence (without a weapon) because of their sexual orientation, and 80% had been verbally harassed (Herek, 2009). Although the Hates Crimes Statistic Law became effective in 1990, the stigma surrounding the LGBTQ community continues to affect their everyday life. It may defer a person by identified their sexual orientation for the fear of being discriminating in the workplace,

Carolyn Turpin-Petrosino, who is a Criminal Justice Professor at Bridgewater State University, states that crimes are committed for numerous reasons. However, when dealing with bias crime, also known as hate crime, the motivation stems from “prejudice or hostile” behavior that is “triggered by his or her perception of the victim’s ethnicity, race, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, disability, or gender” (Tupin-Petrosino, 2015, p. 2). When one thinks of a gender-based crime, many individuals concluded the crime’s victim is most likely a woman. However, in recent years, that statistic has been proven partially true. This is because the term ‘woman’ no longer refers to an individual who is genetically born with female genital, but rather defines those who are “non-normative or non-traditional” and not born with female parts (Kidd & Witten, 2007, p. 36). Quite often, our society places these particular individuals in a category of transgender.

As indicated earlier on, hate crimes have severe impacts on the victims. Because Americans continually encounter hate crimes, hate crime laws may not be as effective in several aspects. These aspects include sexual orientation, disability, racism and religious issues of hate crime. In sexual orientation, people are individuals that are either lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT) in nature, and victims of these specific hate crimes feel isolated and underrated. Additionally, physically challenged individuals are also victims of hate crime offenses. Moreover, some people devise plans on how to attack other people or groups of people based on their race or

665). Hate crimes can range from trespassing and harassment to destruction of property to right out violence which carries a punishment for such as act in the criminal justice system. Statistics show that 17.4% of nearly 88,463 hate crimes were targeted toward sexual minorities which is eight times the expected rate for this group population (Hatzenbuehler et al., 2015).

First, the constant use of hate speech allows society to become immune and more accepting toward violence. Last August, a 58 year old homeless Latino man was ambushed by two white men as he slept,

Hate crimes are not a new concept for society, because hate crimes have always been around. While the study of hate crimes and the laws that have been passed because of hate crimes is relatively new, hate crimes have always been around. Hate crimes were committed as far back as the 1800’s and even back to The Civil War. Hate crimes are prevalent in society today just like they were in the past; because whether the crimes are aimed towards Muslims, the gay community, or any other minority group; they are fueled by something that every person has come into contact with- prejudice. Prejudice is defined as a preconceived thought or opinion about someone. While prejudice can be positive, in the concept of hate crimes they are negative feelings,

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Questioning individuals are almost 3 times more likely than others to experience a mental health condition such as major depression or generalized anxiety disorder (National Alliance on Mental Illness). That is around 55% of LGBTQ people who will develop a mental illness. While some mental illnesses can be genetic, prejudice and stigma have created a higher rate of mental illness in LGBTQ youth because mental illnesses and disorders develop due to prejudice resulting in hate crimes, the stigma of mental health, and the homophobia and transphobia in the United States - all of which that efforts to change are slowly being implemented in schools and homes around the nation. Prejudice and hate crimes such as sexual assault, murder, and torture are not something uncommon for LGBTQ people to experience. For instance, in 2016, 27 transgender people reported to have been murdered, that is more than two people murdered a month (Schmider). However, we can trace it back to much earlier than that.